A Day of Joy and Tears

This is a picture of one of our guinea pigs. Our children love our guinea pigs. Karina loved the guinea pigs. In every letter she asks how the guinea pigs are doing. Everyday our children would play with and take the guinea pigs on adventures - real adventures - I am not sure any other guinea pigs in the world have experienced the adventures these guinea pigs went on. These guinea pigs were loved.

Yesterday was a day in which we experienced immense joy: Storey Grace turned four - God had granted four years of life to our precious daughter. We also got the news that our much prayed for dossier - adoption paperwork - had been accepted and we were invited to go to Ukraine and get Karina - our 13 year old daughter. Truly a day full of joy.
When we returned late Wednesday night from church we also experienced sadness and tears. A stray dog met us in the driveway. The dog had damaged the cage our guinea pigs stay in and killed them both.

Our children cried...our children sobbed...our children expressed anger toward the dog in the driveway...they said, "But Karina loved those guinea pigs!"...these guinea pigs were their pets that they loved, cared for, played with and took on adventures. We cannot have dogs or cats...so we had guinea pigs.

What did God want to teach us during this time of sadness? Thankfulness. As a family we remembered Job...now the loss of guinea pigs is nothing in comparison to Job's loss...but we used his example...the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the LORD.
We spent time thanking God for the time that we had the guinea pigs...thanked God for the adventures...thanked God for the love the kids felt toward the guinea pigs...thanked God that Karina had so much fun with the guinea pigs...we thanked God for the blessing that those animals had been to us. And then we thanked God for his greater blessings...for his son, Jesus Christ...for our church, friends, family, for Karina.

It was sad to see what the dog had done...but it was also a blessing...I can say a blessing because as my children cried themselves to sleep they also thanked God for all his blessings...even simple blessings like guinea pigs. God reminded us to not take any of his gifts for granted...he has blessed us with so much...we want to always be thankful for those blessings and turn them into blessings for others.
A day can hold a lot...yesterday held joy, laughter, excitement, a birthday meal with Storey Grace, sadness, tears, the loss of two loved pets, prayer and a reminder to be thankful....
And, oh, how much we all have to be thankful for. I am glad Thanksgiving is next week.